SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dozens of people, some wearing red "Save Our Jobs" T-shirts, packed a public meeting to testify that a key component of the state's landmark greenhouse gas emissions law will impose enormous costs on them and consumers.
Manufacturers, oil refiners and workers on Thursday appeared before the California Air Resources Board to protest the state's pending cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions.
They say the program's fees amount to a $1 billion-a-year tax increase.
The California Chamber of Commerce and others wrote Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to halt the start of the program, the central element of California's 2006 climate-change law, AB32.
Gino DiCaro, a California Manufacturers and Technology Association spokesman, said some 700 business have signed a letter to the board asking them to reconsider the costs of the program.
